


Survival of the fittest

by haechan_boom



Category: EXO (Band), NCT (Band), SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Angst, Dialogue Heavy, Fights, M/M, Major Character Injury, OT9 (EXO), Psychological Horror, Survival, let's pretend that dream ot6 and yangyang don't exist, man i cant tag for shit but insert every trigger warning ever, they die idk what you want me to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 15:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19930048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haechan_boom/pseuds/haechan_boom
Summary: “The goal is to eliminate everyone else and be the last one left.”“By eliminate, do you mean…?”“Killing each other of course!”How far would you go to save your own life?[Or a survival game AU where EXO, SHINee and NCT are forced to participate in a game where only one single person is allowed to stay alive. Trapped inside a forest with only a bottle of water, some bread and a weapon they fight for their survival. Who loses against his fear first and who will stay sane for the longest time?]





	Survival of the fittest

**Author's Note:**

> so i decided to leave every nct member who is younger than '99 out of this fic and as written in the warnings, there will be character deaths and not just one or two, so brace yourself :-)
> 
> also this fic is gonna be pretty dialogue heavy !!

"The current situation is very serious, Sir," the secretary hesitantly said as he moved his glasses into the right position.  
Lee Sooman leaned on the table and cramped his fingers. 

"The SHINee album sales keep on receding. It seems like Shawols are starting to lose interest after the members went on a hiatus due to their approaching military service dates," the secretary continued and it was clearly visible how uncomfortable he felt as he delivered the news.

Lee Sooman didn't respond nor did he react. He stared ahead at the wall with a blank expression painting his face.  
Nervously coughing the secretary continued, "And that is sadly not everything yet.... "  
Still no reaction from Sooman.

The secretary kept talking. "There was a real mess in Europe, Asia, Australia and especially America. NCTzens were furious with rage over the way how NTC's managers tried to silence various members from talking about Dong Sicheng during broadcasts and Vlive's. The mail box of SME is filled with demanded explanations and hate letters addressed to you, Sir, and the responsible managers and on top of that the sales for their most recent album 'We Are Superhuman' dropped drastically during the past weeks.”

SM's CEO stood up rose from his leather office chair and walked up and down inside his small business room. The secretary followed his movements worriedly.  
"And I am still not done…," he mumbled abashed.  
Sooman stopped moving for a few seconds still not looking at him. His halt was a sign for the secretary to continue. 

"It's about EXO. Exo-L's are upset over the missing interactions between Zhang Yixing and the rest of the members. They demand better treatment for him and threaten with a boycott for EXO's next comeback if the situation around Yixing doesn't change." 

Nodding slowly Sooman took out his hands to crack his knuckles.  
‘He is taking the news pretty calmly,’ the secretary thought to himself until his boss turned around and his deep red face showed, contorted and cramped because of his anger. 

Suddenly, the CEO took a folder from his table and threw it across the room. It smashed against the door and fell down losing all the documents which were carefully sorted inside of it before.  
"WHAT ARE THEY ACTUALLY THINKING?!” he yelled, "that it is easy to lead such a big entertainment?! That I can take care of every fucking wish they have?! They always find something to complain about."  
"Yes Sir, you are totally right, Sir," the secretary answered but Sooman didn't even pay attention to him anymore.

"I’m the bad one now just because I do my job?!" Soonam continued shouting, "they should be thankful that bands like SHINee and EXO even exist! How else would they be able to satisfy their thirst for Asian men then, huh? They should be grateful to me for giving them these boys instead of trying to bash me.  
If I exempted SHINee from the mandatory military service they would receive backlash from korean media and then the fans would be unsatisfied too, right? You can never make them happy. No matter what you do for them.  
There is currently a political tension between China and South Korea so we need to lay low with our chinese artists to avoid even more conflicts but of course the fans know what is best for their oh-so-loved idols.  
And NCT needs to know how to behave in front of the camera. We told them how important it is for them to avoid talking about any WayV member as of right now. Their managers were barely doing their job but of course those useless teenagers know everything better anyway. All of our actions and restrictions have meanings but I mean, what do we even know?"  
His secretary nodded in approval.

Sooman took a deep breath, "But I shouldn't let myself get so worked up because of this. They won't be able to leave them behind anyway. Kpop is like oxygen to them. They need it to breath. To survive. These sick fangirls can't survive a week without getting news about their idols. I give them four days. Bullshit, I give them two days. After that they'll come back and beg on their knees for albums of their worshipped stars."

The secretary cleared his throat as quiet as possible and bit his lip anxiously before he started to speak again, “I excuse my objection, Sir, but the diversity of K-pop groups raised so much during the past years that it would not be a problem for these people to find a new group to stan. The competing entertainments are offering them enough other bands.”

Sooman silently stared at his fellow employee for a while before pressing his lips together until they were as thin as a line. ”Oh, is that the case? They are replacing their favorite idols for others that easily now? Do the men they admired for so long suddenly don't matter anymore? I don’t think so.” 

Sooman started to walk up and down his office again.  
“We just need to remind them again how important their biases are for them. And when do people notice how much they loved something but didn’t appreciate it enough?” Sooman suddenly said to his secretary who jumped a bit out of surprise.

"Uhm…when it is gone, Sir?”

“Exactly!” the CEO responded and a dirty smirk appeared on his face sending a shiver down his secretary’s spine. 

“You want to disband SHINEE, EXO and NCT, Sir?”

Sooman shook his head.  
“That would be way too harmless. The fans need to regret their constant complaining. And they will regret it when their idols need to pay for the mistakes they, the fans, did. Because you know what? They will pay with their lives.”

The bus was pretty full. Twenty-eight people. SHINEE, EXO, NCT and WayV. Every single seat was taken.  
Sehun wondered why the groups didn’t take separate buses like usual but it’s not like he had a problem with that. He liked all of his fellow SM co-workers. Everyone was talented and nice but it was still a bit odd. He bent forward past Jongin, who sat next to him, to look out of the window.  
Sehun still didn’t know where they were driving to as no one was really able to provide him with an answer. Not even Minseok or Junmyeon. Everything he was able to gather was that they were heading towards a big concert hall called 'SC' where they all were supposed to perform for an SMtown concert. Everything was announced just two weeks prior so their schedules were pretty hectic and they barely managed to get everything ready. His manager informed him that it was going to be a quite long drive although he couldn’t really say where that so called SC hall was as well and Naver didn't even offer any links when he tried to look it up himself. 

As a matter of fact, they have been driving pretty long already and most of them were asleep by now. Others were about to fall asleep and then there were a couple of exceptions who were still wide awake and excited. Yuta, Yukhei, Kibum and Chanyeol for example, who partly entertained the person they sat next to, partly the entire bus.  
Sehun glanced at Jongin who calmly sat there with arms crossed, silently listening to music. His eyes were closed but Sehun knew that he wasn't sleeping yet. Sehun kept wandering with his gaze through the entire bus. Up front, right behind the bus driver, he could see Ten who was leaning against Johnny. They were somehow cute. The EXO member didn’t know if the rumors about them dating were true but the thought of them being together was cute in his opinion. 

After some more awfully slow passing hours the sunset slowly started to settle behind the horizon. There was that persistent unsettling feeling inside the pit of Sehun's stomach that just wouldn't disappear ever since they left their dorms early in the morning. The more hours passed the stronger the feeling got. After some time Sehun started to get tired too though. He yawned widely before leaning against Jongin's shoulder. His eyes were heavy, just like his arms and legs. Was he just imagining it or did the commotion in the bus from before suddenly disappear? No voices, no music, no singing. Sehun would have turned around to check but he didn’t have enough energy to do so anymore. Even the noise the bus made eventually muffled and he fell asleep shortly after.

“...hyun. Jonghyun? Hey wake up.” Kibum said and softly nudged the older one next to him.  
Jonghyun opened his eyes reluctantly and looked around. They were still sitting in the bus but with the difference that the bus wasn't driving anymore. It stood still. And it was bright outside. Did he really sleep through the entire night? After all he fell asleep when it started to get dark. Did they finally arrive at their destination? The others around them started to wake up as well one by one.

“Where are we?” Kibum asked the person a seat behind him.  
Jinki looked out of the window. “I don’t know. Looks like a huge empty place. Oh wait. There is a building over there, maybe it’s the SC hall?” 

Jonghyun sat upright. His limbs still felt a bit tense from spending hours in an uncomfortable position. He couldn't wait to leave the damn bus. Then he looked outside. There was indeed a massive building further down but over all this entire place looked pretty abandoned. As if no one lived anywhere around here. All he could see was the beginning of a thick forest about hundred meters away. And then there was that shabby old building. The construction kind of reminded him of a barrack.  
Suddenly, it started to get noisy inside the bus. Seems like everyone has woken up by now. 

“Where are we?”  
“Did we finally arrive?”  
“What kind of place is this?”  
“Did I really sleep this long?”

The entire tumult got interrupted as soon as the door of the bus opened and, to the fright of everyone, a uniformed and armed man entered. Everyone stood up immediately to bow and mutter an intimidated greeting.

“Get out!” the man ordered without any greeting.

The idols exchanged confused glances.  
“Sir, where exactly are we?” Ten asked cautiously.

“No questions!” the soldiers barked and Ten winced at the strict tone of his voice. Johnny protectively put an arm around his waist.  
“But..are we in danger?” Junmyeon quietly asked and looked confused at the long thin gun in that man's hand.

Suddenly it pointed directly at the leader.  
“I said no questions and now get out!!” he growled.

Junymeon stared aghast at the weapon and everyone in the bus held their breath out of surprise.  
Was this an attack? Yuta stood on his toes to get a better sight.

It took some time until Junmyeon freed himself from his rigidity and started to leave the bus under the glare of the man. The other ones followed him hesitantly.

“What the hell is going on?” Doyoung whispered to Yuta who could only shrug.  
He was as clueless as everyone else. The eyes of that armed guy were glued to them while they stepped out of the bus.

“What the fuck does this bullshit mean?” Jaehyun's voice chimed from behind.  
The eyes of the guy closed to small slits.

“Are you all deaf? I said no questions!”

“We understood you,” Jaehyun contradicted, “but who are you anyway to think that you could order us around like that?”

_Bang._

Startled, everyone spun around from Jaehyun to the soldier. He shot a hole into the roof of the bus. Yuta, who stood right under it, stared through it with an open mouth. The blue, cloudless sky extended above his head. Everyone went dead silent. 

Within seconds everyone left the bus and stood anxiously in a crowd.  
“Forward!” the man commanded and pointed at the shabby building.  
The group slowly moved towards it. 

Yuta noticed how everyone tried to get answers from their leaders but they were just as clueless as everyone else. Probably everyone had the same questions.  
Where were they? Why were they here? Who the heck was that guy? Why did he have a gun? What happened to the concert and where were their managers?

The giant metallic door was opened from the inside as soon as they arrived at the building. What awaited them there were even more armed camouflage battle dress suited men. None of them looked even once at the idols but just straight ahead. Didn’t seem like they were fans.

Surrounded and intimidated by all these gun carriers the boys were pushed towards the room at the end of the hallway. That room kind of looked like a huge classroom. There were neither chairs nor tables but there was a huge blackboard. The windows were covered by curtains. In front of the curtains were a bunch of backpacks, all of them in black. There were 28 of them to be exact. On the other side of the room were some doors. What did this all mean?

“Line up in one row!” someone behind them suddenly barked.  
Startled, they all did as they were commanded. They might have run into each other every now and then but eventually managed to form one row.  
The door opened and even more soldiers entered the room. One of them was holding a big box.

Yuta stood approximately in the middle of the line between Sicheng and Kun. He bent forward a bit to get a better sight of what was going on.  
At the beginning of the row was Ten. The Soldier with the box and another man one stood directly in front of the Thai man. You could clearly see that he was scared but he still managed to look into the eyes of the guy with the box.

“Unbutton your shirt!” he commanded and everyone winced. Nobody made an attempt to unbutton their shirt. “Unbutton you shirt, I have to get close to your neck,” he explained. His voice was terrifying but he still seemed to be nicer than the psycho in the bus.  
Ten reacted immediately and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt to expose his neck. The soldier grabbed into the box and took something out but Yuta couldn't identify the object from his position. Then, the soldier put it around Tens throat and a quiet buzz could be heard.  
The next one in line was Taeil who exposed his neck without any resistance as well and the soldier repeated the progress. And like that he went through the entire row until he reached Yuta. 

Actually, Yuta didn’t want to wear such a thing but the gun on the belt of that man did a pretty good job scaring the shit out of him. The thing which the soldier put around his neck was some kind of metal choker with a small red lamp at the front. Both ends got held against each other and as soon as the small buzz chimed the choker was an unmitigated circle which couldn’t be opened anymore. The cold metal burned on Yuta's skin and he had to suppress a flinch. What the hell was that? What was it for??  
The box was put aside as soon as everyone had a choker around their throat and the soldiers lined up against the wall. The idols looked at each other in confusion. What was going to happen now??

Well, that question got answered the next second as one of the doors at the back of the room busted open and a man followed by two other armed men entered the room.  
The man in front of them was no other than Lee Sooman. SM Entertainment's founder and CEO. 

Yuta let out a breath of relief as soon as he recognized him. Everything’s going to be okay from now on. Apparently everyone else seemed to think the same since he could feel everyone around him loosen up a bit. They all bowed in front of their CEO. 

“Sir, where are we?” Yixing asked curiously.  
“In a nature terrain at the utmost point of South Korea,” Sooman answered with a light smile, hands crossed behind his back.  
“Are we going to hold the SMtown concert here?” Yixing wanted to know.  
Sooman chuckled “Well, of course you can if you want to, but there’s not even one single lonely soul living here who could watch your performance. The next city is 500km away.” 

The boys exchanged confused stares again.  
“And what are we doing here then?” Yixing wondered.  
Sooman smile disappeared “You are asking too many questions, Yixing. It’s annoying.”  
Yixing fell silent. Their boss started to walk up and down. 

“My dear boys, I put endless effort and money in you and look at you now! You turned into great guys am I right?” he said as he looked at every single one of them.  
“Tell me, who do you love the most in your life as an idol? Taking your family and friends out. Junmyeon?”  
The named one jumped out of surprise. “Uhm..our fans, Sir?” he answered hesitantly.  
Sooman nodded, “And, do you think that your fans love you too?” he continued asking.  
“Of course, or else they wouldn’t be our fans!” Taeyong said smiling lightly.  
Sooman sent a sharp glare into his direction. 

“And what would you say if the fans, who admire you oh so much, suddenly stopped listening to your music? Jinki?”  
The Shinee leader lifted his head and shrugged with his shoulders, “Well, it’s their decision. We can’t force them to buy our albums, Sir.”  
“So you’re saying that it would be okay if all of your fans suddenly stopped liking you?” Sooman replied standing directly in front of Jinki.  
The latter frowned, “That would be inconvenient of course but they have their reasons I guess…”

“THE REASON, ” Sooman suddenly shouted, startling everyone, “WHY YOUR ALBUM IS NOT SELLING, IS BECAUSE THE AUDIENCE BORED OF YOU!”

“Some of them might have lost interest due to our hiatus but everything will turn back to normal once we all have absolved our military service,” Kibum suddenly said quietly.  
The CEO walked towards Kibum while glaring at him, “So you think that their interest will magically return after you come back from the military in two years?”  
Kibum nodded slightly.

“Well, I don’t think so,” Soonam growled, “and do you know why? Because these fans don’t need SHINee. There are enough other bands which they can stan. BTS, Stray Kids, Got7, Seventeen and these are just the ones I remember right now. There are thousands of other bands out there. They don’t need SHINee or NCT or EXO.”

“With all due respect Sir, but I think that we all have very loyal fans,” Minho said, “I’m convinced that they won’t leave us that easily. They will come back for sure. We just need to wait a bit. And I think that that we deserve the chance to wa-“  
“You’re just worth as much as you earn for me!” Sooman suddenly interrupted him with a loud voice, “and at the moment I’m not getting any money out of you. Literally nothing. You aren’t worth anything. You are useless and cost me a shit ton of money on top of that!!”

Everyone fell silent.  
“And what are we supposed to do now?” Taemin asked quietly.

Sooman looked at him for a long time and then a smirk appeared on his face.

“Do you know what the problem is? There are just too many K-pop idols. The easy principle of the demand-supply-relationship is: The demand will decrease if there is a supply surplus. And when will the demand increase again? Taeil?”  
Taeil whimpered quietly as he got addressed so suddenly, “When…when the supply decreases, Sir?”  
“Exactly! And we need to ensure that. I had a quite nice idea on how to realize that principle,” Sooman said.

He walked up to the big blackboard and wrote 'SURVIVAL COMBAT' in bold letters on it. Small whispers went through the row. 'Survival Combat', are they filming for a game show?  
“SILENCE!” one of the soldiers yelled and everyone went silent instantly. 

“You are probably wondering what exactly 'Survival Combat' is, right? That’s the name of the TV show you all are going to participate in. It’s a survival game where just one single person out of all of you can win. The fans will be extremely interested in this show and along the way they will finally realize what they actually lost when they stopped caring about you.”  
A TV show? A game? That actually didn't sound that bad.

What kind of game are we going to play?” Jaehyun questioned with his arms crossed in front of his chest.  
“Oh, it’s really easy,” Sooman said and pretended to wipe dust off his arm, “the goal is to eliminate everyone else and to be the last one left.”  
“What exactly do you mean with eliminating?” Kun asked hesitantly.

A broad smirk appeared on Sooman's face, “Oh Kun, that means that you will _kill_ the other participants of course!”

Silence. Absolute silence. One could have heard a pin falling down. No one said a single word. Everyone was frozen. Lee Sooman's words repeated inside their heads over and over again like a broken record but they still couldn’t progress the situation they were in right now.

_That means that you will kill the other participants of course!_

Did he really expect them to kill each other? Their own co-workers, band mates, friends, their second family? But the words slipped so lightly out of his mouth. What kind of sick bullshit was going on ?? A loud laugh interrupted the silence.

“What kind of fucking joke is this?” Doyoung chuckled.  
Judging from his expression he really seemed to think that this all would be a bad joke “Are we here with some kind of hidden camera?”  
There others started looking around for any hidden objects.  
“This isn’t a joke, Doyoung,” Sooman warned.  
“Of course not,” he mocked, “as if you really would want to kill us. You're literally going against a dozens of laws for this stupid game. The jail time is not going to be short." Sooman rolled his eyes,“I won’t be the one committing those crimes. You will be the ones doing the dirty job.”  
“This is ridiculous. I want to talk to our manager.”  
“Your manager? Sure, bring us Yoojin,” Soonam said to one of the soldiers who immediately left the room. 

The boys looked at each other. Doyoung seemed to be pretty shocked about this situation, but who wasn’t anyway?  
“Ah, there he is!” Soonam said and everyone turned their head to the door. A big table covered by a white sheet was pushed into the room. An expression of horror washed over their faces as they seemed to realize what was going on.

“Come here, Doyoung,” the CEO commanded.  
Doyoung reluctantly obeyed. The others really admired him for his intrepidity. He stood directly in front of the table and stared at it.

“You want to talk to you manager? There he is,” Sooman said laughing as he pulled down the cover.  
Doyoung wasn't able avert his eyes fast enough before the terrible disfigured body of their manager got exposed. He was covered in blood, especially around his neck area, and stared directly at Doyoung with wide eyes void of any life. 

Doyoung jumped back and everyone else started to scream and run towards the main door. This wasn’t a joke. This man was real and he was dead. NCT's manager was brutally killed. Doyoung has never seen a corpse before and he was more than glad about that. 

He felt sick, really sick. Kun next to him gripped his arm and dragged him to the door which was locked for obvious reasons. The boys stood closely next to each other pushed into a corner staring at Sooman who smiled contently.

“WHY DID YOU DO THAT?” Doyoung yelled but Sooman just casually shrugged with his shoulder.  
“He was against 'Survival Combat' so I had to get him out of the way before he could tell the media about my idea. The same goes for the others managers, by the way.” He explained calmly.  
What? All of their managers were dead? The men who were always there for them and supported them? Dead? Killed?

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Jonghyun suddenly yelled, seemingly the only one who was brave enough to say it out loud.  
“I just did what was necessary.”  
“That was definitely not necessary! You’re such a sick bastard! You killed innocent people, god damn it!”

Jinki knew that he had to stop Jonghyun before Sooman would lose his patience so he reached for his arm but Jonghyun just shoved him off.  
“You murdered three innocent men and now you want us to slaughter each other? Fuck yourself, psycho!”  
“Jonghyun, it’s enough…” Jinki whispered but Jonghyun already ran towards Soonam ready to punch him into the face.  
“I thought of you as an honorable man! I will kill y-“ 

_Bang_

Jinki wasn't able to progress fast enough what has happened just now. Jonghyun fell onto the ground not moving an inch. Blood slowly started to spread all over the floor and his fellow members ran towards the body laying on the ground. The bullet shot directly through his head. No question, he was dead immediately.

“N-no, no, no, what did you do??” Kibum cried and moved the hair out of Jonghyuns face. His expression was contorted. 

“We need an ambulance!!” Taemin screamed, “PLEASE!!!”  
Jinki was aware that the ambulance wouldn’t be able to help much considering the fact that half of Jonghyun's head got blown away.

“You bastard! You just killed an innocent man!” Doyoung shouted.  
Sooman stared blankly at Jonghyun's corpse, set his glasses straight and walked to the blackboard.

“I will explain the rules now so listen closely if you don’t want to die during the first 5 seconds.”

Everyone looked at him aghast. Their friend was killed just now yet he acted indifferent and wanted them to listen to these rules not even caring about Jonghyun?  
“Everyone will get one backpack. It contains food, water, a clock and a weapon. Every backpack has a different weapon. It purely depends on your luck whether you get a good weapon or not. But getting a less dangerous weapon actually doesn’t mean that it’s not useful. It depends on your skill, creativity and if you know how to use it for your advantage. Just try your best,” he explained.

“You will leave this building one after another in alphabetical order,” Sooman opened up the blackboard and showed a list with all of the 28 names, “everyone has a unique number. You should remember your own because we’re going to say your number and not your name when we address something to you during the game, like your position, for example. Is there still something unclear?”

No one answered. The SHINee members where still gathered about Jonghyun's body and mourned their dead friend.  
“These are the basic rules. The 28th person wins when 27 of you are dead. He will leave this area as the only survivor and start a solo career at SM.”  
Everyone looked at the CEO with pure hatred in their eyes. As if someone would still want to work for SM after going through this hell.

“Another rule is that you are only allowed to attack the other participants and none of the soldiers. They are expensive so don’t hurt them, okay?” Sooman said grinning.  
Was that supposed to be funny?  
“You’re also not allowed to wait outside and kill the ones who just entered the playground so don't be too eager. That would be unfair. The game only begins when the last one left the building and is at least one kilometer away from it. Who kills earlier will get punished. Got it?”

“Punished?” Doyoung sneered, “what do you mean by punished? Isn’t this enough as a punishment already? You’re hiding us in an enclosed space and expect us to kill each other like animals. Do you really think that any of us will participate in that!?”

Sooman smirked, “Oh yes. You all will participate in this sooner or later because the human is just another animal anyway. The fear for your own life will win in the end.”  
“How can you think that this is funny??” Doyoung shouted and ran towards him, anger clouding his mind.

_Bang._

And like this the second person fell drop dead onto the floor.  
“DOYOUNG !”  
“NO!”  
“Oh god...”  
The entire group ran over to Doyoung but there was nothing to save anymore.

“Stop senselessly shooting people already!” Yuta shouted with tears rolling down his face.  
Taeyong turned Doyoung on his back. A big hole pierced through his chest resembling the hole in the roof of the bus from earlier.

Taeil was the only NCT member who didn’t kneel on the floor. He stood next to Doyoung and just stared at him with a blank face. Then he slowly turned around to Sooman.  
“You monster,” his voice trembled because of his anger. “I will will never forgive you for this,” he shouted but before he could even take a step forward he got held back by soldiers already. He punched around, trying to free himself from their grip. Taeil might have been strong but even someone like him wasn't able to stand a chance against these men.

“Taeil, I explained the rules just now,” Sooman said, almost sounding disappointed, “you’re not allowed to attack my guardians and I thought that it was obvious that attacking me is forbidden as well. But well, at least this is a great opportunity to demonstrate what the metal chokers around your throats are for!”  
Everyone instinctively touched their neck.

“I think that I don’t need to say that you won’t be able to get rid of them no matter what you do. Their specialty is that they can explode! They will blow up instantly if you try to forcefully take them off,” he explained excitedly.  
“Your choker will start blinking whenever you violate against one of my named rules. Then you will have twenty seconds before your head will explode. The same happens when you attack someone before the game has officially started. Ah! And there’s another rule. This entire game will be streamed live and nationwide on the television so maybe you will even see the cameras that are placed all around the area. You’re not allowed to destroy them or speak directly to the people watching or else _'bang'_. And there’s also a time limit so it won’t get boring. If no one dies within six hours then one of the chokers will randomly go off. And this show is supposed to be entertaining for our younger audience as well so please refrain from displaying immoral behavior, okay? ” he looked expectantly into the crowd. It was silent. 

“So, where did I stop?” he continued and his gaze fell upon Taeil.  
“Ah, right. Taeil, you broke one of the rules, so…” he took a small remote control out of his pocket, “you all better say goodbye to him now, you won't get another chance.”  
Taeil's eyes widened comically and he turned around to his members looking at them in fear as a red light suddenly appeared on his choker and it started beeping.

_Biep. Biep. Biep._

“Help me” Taeil whispered.  
Sicheng walked towards him but he obviously didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Cold sweat was running down Taeil's back as he painfully realized how his life was coming to an end in some seconds.  


_Biepbiep. Biepbiep._

“SICHENG, ” Taeil yelled and the addressed one started crying feeling helpless.

“Please take the choker off!” Sicheng begged Sooman who just watched Taeil desperately trying to rip the choker off.  
Tears were endlessly flowing down his face and panic was written all over it. Everyone else could only stand there and watch. Nobody was able to move.

“PLEASE, JUST HELP ME, PLEASE! I BEG YOU!!!” Taeil was on his knees begging for his life, reaching out for his fellow members as the last five seconds approached

_Biepbiepbiepbiepbiepbiepbiepbiiiiiieeep._

The choker exploded the next second tearing Taeils head apart. Everyone stood still. Blood was spattered everywhere. It was on the wall, on the clothes, on their skin. It was a horrible sight.

“Great. So everything is said and shown now. We can finally start!” Sooman announced joyfully. He went to the blackboard and crossed three names out of the list.

_06\. Kim Doyoung, 08. Kim Jonghyun and 19. Moon Taeil. ___

____

“The game is progressing quite fast, ” he observed, “not even an hour has passed yet and three participants are gone already. But let's not waste any more time, so let’s start with the procedure.”  
No one said a word. No one wanted to be the next one blowing up after all that has happened. While some NCT members still stood around Doyoung, some others knelt next to Taeil. The sight of his tattered head gave the other members nausea. They didn’t expect him to die that fast. But he was dead. Just like Doyoung and Jonghyun. NCT lost two members in such a short period of time already and a lot more were about to follow.

Sooman looked at the list “1. Byun Baekhyun. Here you go!”  
Everyone looked at the small singer who hid behind Chanyeol. He didn’t move until one of the soldiers unlocked his gun. Another soldier threw a bag at him and Sooman showed him through which door he had to leave.  
“Good luck, Baekhyun and remember. The game only starts when you hear the announcement, understood?” Sooman said.  
Baehyun nodded hesitantly. He looked like he was about to vomit. He clasped the backpack, threw one last glance at the people gathered in the room and then left the building. Sooman called the next one as soon as the door closed.

“Choi Minho.”  
The addressed one looked up. His eyes were red and swollen. He stood up slowly, looked at Jinki first, then at Kibum and then at Taemin and lastly at Jonghyun's corpse. He silently took a backpack and left the building.

“Do Kyungsoo.”  
Kyungsoo, who was looking at Doyoung the entire time, stood up. Jongin grabbed his hand and whimpered a small, “Kyungsoo…” but the latter just patted his head softly before he walked away.

A few people later it was Jaehyun's turn. “Jung Yoonoh.”  
He would have good chances in this game since he has good body physique and was quite athletic, but to everyone’s surprise Jaehyun threw the backpack, which he just received, aside.  
“I won’t kill anybody! You can forget that.”  
Sooman sighed “But you're going to die then.”  
“I don’t care. I’d rather die than turn into a cruel monster like you. Go to hell.”  
And with these words he already left the building leaving his backpack behind. The others admired him for his courage. The chance of survival wasn’t very high for any of them but Jaehyun just threw away the only thing which could have kept him alive.

The rest got called one after another. No one said a word. Yuta spit in front of Sooman's feet before he walked through the door. There were just a few left, four people to be exact.  
“Seo Youngho.”  
Johnny slowly lifted his head. His face was distorted with rage and he didn’t leave his spot before closing Doyoungs eyes. He looked more peaceful now, as if he was sleeping. If you ignored the hole in his chest of course. Then he walked past Taeil's dead body, took his backpack and walked silently towards the door.

“Wong Yukhei, it’s your turn.”  
With an uncomfortable feeling he walked towards the soldier and took the bag. Sooman gave him an encouraging smile but he averted his gaze. He walked to the door without looking back at his two dead friends. The last two left were Kunhang and Yixing who watched him walking away in silence. You could see how anxious they were. Yukhei gulped before he opened the door and stepped outside.

The smell of the forest surrounded him immediately as his lungs filled with oxygen helping him clearing his mind. The events just now hit him like a baseball bat. Two of his friends and his manager were killed. How did this happen? Yesterday, they were still in their dorm talking about the concert which was supposed to be held today and now they are somewhere in nowhere about to kill each other?  
Yukhei felt horrible. He was about to vomit but realized that he was still standing in front of the door. Wasn’t there a rule which forbid them to stay right in front of the entrance? Startled, he started to run into the forest, tripping here and there. It was silent around him, you could only hear a bird chirping in the distance. But there wouldn’t be someone who suddenly started to kill the others, right? Yukhei thought about a plan while he fought his way through the under-wood. There must be a way to leave this area. Even if there was a fence or wall around it. There were so many athletic members who could escape easily. But it probably wasn’t that easy. His priority for now was to find the others.

Yukhei suddenly remembered the backpack he carried. Didn’t they say that there was a weapon in it? He opened it and he found bread, a water bottle, a clock and… what was that? He pulled a long silver metal pole out of his bag. Was that a drain pipe? Was that supposed to be his weapon? Could you even hurt someone with this? Well, maybe if you used enough strength but Yukhei actually still expected a… more spectacular weapon, if he was honest. A sword or a gun for example, not that he was planning on using them.

Suddenly he heard a loud crack and flinched. He looked around. Where did that sound come from? He wasn't able to discover the source but then a voice chimed. It was a bit distorted and it sounded more like an announcement in an high school.

“So, the last one left the building just now,” it was Sooman.  
“Hopefully, you know what this means. You’re live from now on so behave well. Make SM proud. Good luck to you all, you will need it because I proudly announce:”  
He made a dramatic pause. Yukhei bit his lip. Was there a way to prevent Sooman from saying the next words?

_“Survival Combat has just begun!”_

01\. Byun Baekhyun  
02\. Choi Minh  
03\. Do Kyungsoo  
04\. Dong Sicheng  
05\. Jung Yoonoh  
~~06\. Kim Doyoung~~  
07\. Kim Jongdae  
~~08\. Kim Jonghyun~~  
09\. Kim Jongin  
10\. Kim Jungwoo  
11\. Kim Junmyeon  
12\. Kim Kibum  
13\. Kim Minseok  
14\. Leechaipornkul Chittaphon  
15\. Lee Jinki  
16\. Lee Minhyung  
17\. Lee Taemin  
18\. Lee Taeyong  
~~19\. Moon Taeil~~  
20\. Nakamoto Yuta  
21\. Oh Sehun  
22\. Park Chanyeol  
23\. Quian Kun  
24\. Suh Youngho  
25\. Wong Kunhang  
26\. Wong Yukhei  
27\. Xiao Dejun  
28\. Zhang Yixing 

**25 participants left**

**Author's Note:**

> honestly? i didn't think that writing 6k words would consume so much of my time (props to all the 5k+ words writer out there) but i started it so i'm going to pull through until the end 
> 
> btw english isn't my first language (it's not even my second language lmao) so there are probably a couple of grammar mistakes so please be so kind and point them out if you discover any!


End file.
